Ericsson 3 Leg 4 Day 8

Tomas ‘Tompe’ Johansson just told me a breathtaking story from yesterday night.

We were passing the north top of the Philippines with 40 to 44 knots of wind and nasty sea state. The wind had been the same during the day, but during the night, you have to feel your way forward since the surroundings are just black.

“We were doing alright, punching our way over the wave with just the storm jib up. Every now and then I saw white water and had to steer away and receive the wave a bit from the side. If you don’t turn your boat will not survive for long since breaking waves means free falling after you’ve reached the top”, Tomas said.

“One of these breaking waves was a lot bigger than the others. I was quickly trying to steer away, but as I finished the turn the wave washed over the side of the yacht and hit me hard in the side. I lost my grip and was washed off the steering podium. I managed to hold on to the wheel but the rest of my body was swept away. Luckily I had my harness attached. It abruptly stopped the little detour and with my hands still on the wheel I just managed to crawl back in position without losing control of the boat.

The storm has left some wear behind. Yesterday our wind instruments broke, Jens Dolmer/DEN fell and hurt his ribs, everyone is lacking sleep and we had to spend the entire morning fixing rips in the mainsail. You can easily notice the tiredness. Small mistakes are made and people are a bit grumpy.

On the nice side, this afternoon the wind calmed down quite a bit and we took out two of the three reefs. The sun came out and it was pretty nice there for a while. The reason why we didn’t then and still haven’t hoisted a bigger headsail is because the sea state still is quite messy. And I hear that it is going to be worse again. Another push is heading our way.

Gustav Morin - MCM